The present invention relates to the preparation of pies and other filled pastry products and, in particular, to the provision of a dry mix which can be utilized by a consumer for making a filling for such products without the need for cooking steps.
Pies and other like filled pastry products such as tarts have for many years been favored dessert and snack items. These products generally comprise a baked pie shell or pastry shell in which a flavored filling is poured and which may thereafter be topped with either a crust, cream topping, fruit topping, or the like. In certain instances, the completely assembled pie thereafter requires baking while in other cases the filling itself is pre-cooked before being poured into the shell.
A particularly favored class of pies are those in which the filling is a starch-based, gelled or set pudding-like mass. Examples of such pies are lemon pies, lemon meringue pies, coconut cream pies, chocolate cream pies, vanilla cream pies, banana cream pies and the like. These pies are characterized by the fact that the filling has a pleasant smooth eating texture while also possessing sufficient strength and rigidity to enable it to cut cleanly for the serving of individual pie pieces and to enable individual pie pieces to stand on their own without excessive running or collapse of the filling.
In typical recipe preparations of such pies, a filling is prepared by cooking (boiling) a mixture of sugar, starch and water (together with flavorants and/or colorants and other additives peculiar to the particular pie in question as, for example, the use of egg in lemon pie fillings to contribute to the unique texture thereof), during which process the starch granules undergo progessively increasing stages of water absorption, swelling and loss of birefringence, along with leaching out of soluble portions of the starch. The aqueous mixture increases greatly in viscosity and, upon cooling (i.e., after pouring into a pie shell) sets to a firm gel structure.
In this present age of consumer convenience, efforts constantly are being made to provide products which can be prepared and consumed with a minimum of effort. In the field of pies, tarts and the like, these efforts have been directed toward presentation to the consumer of, for example, frozen complete products requiring no more than thawing or heating prior to consumption. Another form of convenience pie product of the starch- based filling type is predicated upon the provision of a dry filling mix containing the full complement of sugars, starch, flavorings, etc. which can be admixed with water or other aqueous medium and cooked to provide a filling which can be poured into a pie shell and which will set upon cooling.
Still further, it has been perceived as desirable to provide the consumer with a mix which can be reconstituted to form a set or gelled starch-based filling without any need for cooking, i.e., using ordinary tap water, cold water, cold milk or the like. Products of this type present the ultimate consumer convenience, but pose difficult formulation problems. This is particularly true with respect to the starch component of the filling since, absent some form of manufacturing or post-manufacturing modification, typical native starch is incapable of achieving the requisite degree of swelling, absorption, and loss of birefringence in unheated media to produce a viscous gelled or set product in any reasonable period of time required for convenience food items.
Starches are, of course, known which, through means of modification, can form relatively viscous mixtures in aqueous media without need for extensive cooking. Some starches of this type have been employed in so-called instant pudding products, but these products nevertheless rely upon an independent gelling system based upon milk proteins and alkali metal (e.g., calcium) pyrophosphates, orthophosphates and the like. It would be most desirable to be able to provide a pie or tart filling mix which could be reconstituted without cooking and without need for an independent gelatin system to form a firm gelled or set product in a relatively short period of time.
Another difficulty in preparing products of the type in question is the fact that even if starches are provided which are capable of achieving sufficient absorption and swelling in cold or room temperature media to form a set product, the very modifications required to achieve this result can adversely affect other desired textural properties sought to be imparted by the starch.
A still further difficulty relates to the interaction of ingredients which occurs when a complete filling mix is sought to be provided. Starches which may possess the capability of forming a set gel in admixture with aqueous media per se could lose this property (or exhibit it to a lesser degree) when the admixture further contains additional ingredients. This is particularly true for fillings which contain acidic ingredients such as found in lemon, lime or other citrus-flavored fillings.
With respect to the above-mentioned lemon, lime or other citrus-flavored fillings, another difficulty is encountered with respect to the desirable textural attributes contributed by eggs. Thus, in conventional recipes for cooked lemon fillings (e.g., for preparing lemon meringue pies), eggs are included to provide a desired rich, thick filling. As is well known, however, great care and special steps must generally be taken in order to avoid curdling of the egg in the presence of the acidic components of the recipe. In formulating a complete dry mix for preparing a lemon filling, therefore, a dried egg component might be included to provide the texture achieved in homemade fillings. However, dried egg products generally do not have keeping qualities of the type required for use in a dry filling mix and, moreover, hydration of the dry mix for preparation of the filling may lead to the noted curdling problem.